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Answerman

The Cradle of Sarcasm

by Zac Bertschy, Jul 24th 2003

The Ms. and I are hard at work on the new Summer Preview guide, so Answerman this week will be a little on the short side. Let's get cracking, shall we?

Hiya, I'm a big-time fan of To Heart, and I was just wondering...with the recent announcement that the To Heart manga will be released by ADV Manga, are there any chances that the anime may be liscensed by ADV Films in the future? Thanks a bunch!

Well, it's hard to say. ADV would have announced the anime first if they had it, but perhaps they're still in negotiations for it. There's no way to tell one way or the other, but the fact that they have the manga means there's probably about a ninety percent chance that they've got the anime series as well. You'll just have to wait for an official announcement; chances are they'll say something at Otakon.

Ms. Answerman,

On the Japanese boxed set of Rurouni Kenshin there was a special episode included called "Memorial." I've seen screen caps from it and it seems to be a remembrance of the series by the married Kenshin and Kaoru and even Kenji is animated!! Please tell me that MediaBlasters is going to release this!!!! I have to see this episode!!! Maybe they will release it with the last boxed set?

Many thanks!
Himura_Kaoru

Thanks to Amy for this info: The episode the person is referring to is probably the single "episode" included in the Memorial Boxed Set. Kenshin and Kaoru (who are now married and have their son Kenji) sit together and flash back to different scenes in the TV series. The animation is almost entirely taken directly from the TV series. But there are small parts of new animation of the older Kenshin and Kaoru, as well as Kenji as a little boy. This is NOT the same as the Second OAV or Episode 95 (which was included on its own disk in the third boxed set for the TV series in Japan (not the Memorial Boxed Set) and on the last disk in the Media Blasters release in the US).
Thanks Amy!

Hi, the subs on the R4 version of Ghost in the Shell are one to two second out of sync. Does the R1 release have the same problem?

No. Buy the R1. I'm not sure what happened with the R4 release, but the R1's subtitles are just fine. Trust me, if they ever made a mistake like that on a US DVD, the fanboys would have let the company know and a recall would have happened immediately.

With the announcement of a second season of Big O, this only goes to prove that major anime production companies are beginning to recognize the potential of the stateside audience. On the same idea(kinda), has any effort been put forth in regards to the completion or a second season of Pilot Candidate? I remember something happened with the original production company, being the reason why it ended where it did. So would it even be possible for a second season to be produced, or perhaps allowing someone else to finish it?

As far as I know, there is no second season of Pilot Candidate and there probably never will be. A special OVA episode was released in Japan a while back. That hasn't come over to the states yet, but it might. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a second season. The show's popularity has died down quite a bit.

Ok Riddle me this Answerman,
What make the new Macross Plus Box set worth the 87 some odd dollars that they claim it is going to coast, when you can guy each DVD separate for a grand total of about 50 dollars?

Because the three DVDs included in the Macross box set retail for 29.99 each. I can buy all of the Rocky movies separately, used, for 8.99 on DVD and it'll cost me less than the box set, but they don't price boxed sets based on what the online discount/in-store discount/used copy prices of the individual discs are. Usually they take SRP for what each disc would have cost individually and then price the box set five bucks cheaper or so.

When is FLCL (fooly cooly, furi curi, whatever!) coming to Cartoon Network? Also, I've read on your site that Blue Gender is coming to CN and that it's filled with "questionable" material

What is so controversial about it? I've never seen it before, so I'm clueless

- KAugust 2nd is when Cartoon Networksays FLCL will air. Blue Gender is violent and, I believe, has a couple of sex scenes in it that will no doubt be cut. The show is an extremely dark sci-fi thing and is unlike anything CN has shown so far. It isn't really a controversial show, but the fact that it's airing on CN sort of makes it controversial.

Hi Ms. Answerman,
I'm a big fan of some really well done anime like Cowboy Bebop, Spirited Away, Metropolis, and Macross Plus. My question is this, how much does it take to produce a high end anime? With the superior animation, good music, and a great script, it must cost a lot. Any idea how much?
Thanks,
Thisbe

Millions of dollars. All of the films you mentioned cost in the millions of dollars to produce. By American standards, that isn't a whole lot, but since the average Japanese show costs about 20k per episode to produce, having a budget in the millions of dollars is a pretty big deal. They usually bring animated movies in at under a million, but for big tentpole productions like Spirited Away and Metropolis, they'll spend and spend. So far the ceiling for top productions has been about $20 Million, Spirited Away, Metropolis and the upcoming Ghost in the Shell 2 movie all have (or had) budgets close to $20 Million.

Hello Ms. Answerman,

I was wondering if you knew if Digimon Frontier was going to be released on video/DVD. I've taken quite a liking to it and was curious about if it was coming out soon/ever. Also, upon searching for it, I found that the other Digimon series have some serious gaps between episodes. Are those missing episodes going to be released eventually? Probably not, huh? I realize that the Digimon series is a children's show, so I'm only inquiring about the status of the dub being released. Thanks for any help you can give!

Since Digimon is about as popular as, say, Pokemon (that is to say, not at all), I wouldn't wait around for a proper DVD release. You might see bargain-priced “babysitter” DVDs with 10 episodes or so per disc, but don't expect them to release the series in chronological order. With a children's show like Digimon, there are going to be big chunks of the original series removed for content reasons. The odds that you'll ever see those episodes are basically zero.

Dear Mr. Answerman,
I have two questions to ask you, my first question is if Mobile Suit Gundam SEED will be coming to the states anytime soon? My other question is whether or not there is a chance of getting any anime soundtracks over here, like the Evangelion soundtrack? I greatly appreciate any answers you give me.

Sincerely,
VincentVagrant

Bandai hasn't announced Gundam SEED yet, but they've hinted that they'll be doing so at Otakon so you can expect the show to appear here sometime next year. As far as soundtracks go, ADV hasn't announced the EVA soundtracks yet, but I'd imagine that they will at some point in the future. They've been moving forward with their music division for a while, and an EVA soundtrack seems a natural fit for them.

I have a question about the third volume of Chobits. I noticed that the
episode entitled "Shinbo and Sumomo Talk" was completely skipped over and
instead the third volume started with the episode "Chii Buys". I realize
that "Shinbo and Sumomo Talk" is a "review" episode but why did Pioneer skip
over it and go to the episode after it? And does this mean that "Minoru and
Yuzuki Talk", another "review" episode, will be skipped as well? I would
really be thankfull if you would answer my question. Thank you very much.

Ongaku_no_tenshi

A lot of fans are happy about Pioneer's decision to start skipping review episodes. If you're down to three episodes per disc and one of them is a recap, you're gonna be pretty pissed off. The review episodes offer no new information and are designed to save money and draw in new viewers while the show is airing on Japanese television. Most people skip over them when watching the television broadcast in the first place. Pioneer's Chad Kime informed me that the episodes will not be on future volumes of the DVD, but they are working on an extra DVD for the Hard Core collectors.

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